This is a journal, not about trading, but about me, Huios, becoming a trader. I chose to do it online to make me more accountable to it (I hate journaling) , and to allow others to give constructive criticisms.
Background⦠I first started trading about 5 years ago. Opened a small (3K) account, and within six weeks almost doubled it. Thought I was da man, and this was a piece of cake. I was trading commodities, ie. softs, ags, metals, and meats, and paying $95.00 round turn. I was doing so good, and so full of myself that I went from trading one contract to two. Imagine, trading two gold contracts, with a $750 stop loss, on a 5.5K account. Within 6 trading days and several margin calls between gold and FCOJ, my account was down to $98.10. I figured out I wasnât da man, and it was a piece of luck. That was the wake up call. The next four years I spent watching the markets, and reading a lot of books, and spending a lot of time on the old FutureSource board.
It was in â99 that I read Phantom of the Pits online book, and Van Tharpâs book and it changed my thinking completely around. There is no spoon, errr, Grail. I had to bend me!!! All that psycho stuff I used on other people was now turned on me, again (that is another story for another thread in another board another time).
In April of 2001, I knew it was time to trade again, call it a Divine Appointment, but this time to do it the right way. Whatever that meant. So, by the end of summer, I sold my business, apartment buildings, house, and most of the furniture, and moved my family to NC to become a full time trader. God was doing a new thing.
Opened a ârealâ account with a ârealâ broker and started position trading the ags, softs, and meats in March, â02 using end of day data. This time being a little smarter, or so I thought. Traded the account up almost 12% in 6 weeks, mostly by shorting Feederâs. I was using the CME 10 minute delay quotes to check prices during the day. Then one day, I wanted to get into feeders, but was almost already limit down, so I jumped in Live Cattle. Cows are cows, right? I placed my stop to get in, but thought price had already traded thru, cancelled the order, got the cancel confirmed (or what I thought was a cancel confirmed), placed another stop below the market, again thought the price had already traded thru, cancelled, got my confirm, and placed a market. Got a fill, but it was a fill on the first two contracts I cancelled over 30 minutes ago. Then got another fill, then another. By this time the feeders came up off the bottom, and was taking the LC with them. I was short 6 LC in a fast rising market. Soooo, I thought I would do like any good trader would do, manage my losses and get out at the best time I could, off a move back down. Now, remember, I am using EOD data and 10 min delayed quotes. You know the rest of the story, the cows never moved back down, I had sold the lows of the day, and of the move. Ended up losing almost all of my previous profits in the short span of 2 hours.
Called my broker, and asked what happened. What I thought were cancel confirms, were of course, cancel rejections, because they were already filled. The problem was the pitman stuck them in his pocket and never reported the fills. I donât blame the pitman, it was my responsibility to know my software. Oh, by the way, this was the same day I called my accountant and learned that I owed twice what I thought in taxed. Not a good day to trade!!!
I learned a lot that day and the weeks that followed. The biggest thing I learned was that the market donât give a hoot about me. The market is gonna do what it is gonna do, when it wants to do it, and the best I can do is to buy when it is going up, and sell when it is going down, cut my losses immediately, and let my profits run.
So here I am, daytrading the ES contract. Placed my first trade May 13th.
Letâs see how well I learned my lessons.
To be continuedâ¦
Background⦠I first started trading about 5 years ago. Opened a small (3K) account, and within six weeks almost doubled it. Thought I was da man, and this was a piece of cake. I was trading commodities, ie. softs, ags, metals, and meats, and paying $95.00 round turn. I was doing so good, and so full of myself that I went from trading one contract to two. Imagine, trading two gold contracts, with a $750 stop loss, on a 5.5K account. Within 6 trading days and several margin calls between gold and FCOJ, my account was down to $98.10. I figured out I wasnât da man, and it was a piece of luck. That was the wake up call. The next four years I spent watching the markets, and reading a lot of books, and spending a lot of time on the old FutureSource board.
It was in â99 that I read Phantom of the Pits online book, and Van Tharpâs book and it changed my thinking completely around. There is no spoon, errr, Grail. I had to bend me!!! All that psycho stuff I used on other people was now turned on me, again (that is another story for another thread in another board another time).
In April of 2001, I knew it was time to trade again, call it a Divine Appointment, but this time to do it the right way. Whatever that meant. So, by the end of summer, I sold my business, apartment buildings, house, and most of the furniture, and moved my family to NC to become a full time trader. God was doing a new thing.
Opened a ârealâ account with a ârealâ broker and started position trading the ags, softs, and meats in March, â02 using end of day data. This time being a little smarter, or so I thought. Traded the account up almost 12% in 6 weeks, mostly by shorting Feederâs. I was using the CME 10 minute delay quotes to check prices during the day. Then one day, I wanted to get into feeders, but was almost already limit down, so I jumped in Live Cattle. Cows are cows, right? I placed my stop to get in, but thought price had already traded thru, cancelled the order, got the cancel confirmed (or what I thought was a cancel confirmed), placed another stop below the market, again thought the price had already traded thru, cancelled, got my confirm, and placed a market. Got a fill, but it was a fill on the first two contracts I cancelled over 30 minutes ago. Then got another fill, then another. By this time the feeders came up off the bottom, and was taking the LC with them. I was short 6 LC in a fast rising market. Soooo, I thought I would do like any good trader would do, manage my losses and get out at the best time I could, off a move back down. Now, remember, I am using EOD data and 10 min delayed quotes. You know the rest of the story, the cows never moved back down, I had sold the lows of the day, and of the move. Ended up losing almost all of my previous profits in the short span of 2 hours.
Called my broker, and asked what happened. What I thought were cancel confirms, were of course, cancel rejections, because they were already filled. The problem was the pitman stuck them in his pocket and never reported the fills. I donât blame the pitman, it was my responsibility to know my software. Oh, by the way, this was the same day I called my accountant and learned that I owed twice what I thought in taxed. Not a good day to trade!!!
I learned a lot that day and the weeks that followed. The biggest thing I learned was that the market donât give a hoot about me. The market is gonna do what it is gonna do, when it wants to do it, and the best I can do is to buy when it is going up, and sell when it is going down, cut my losses immediately, and let my profits run.
So here I am, daytrading the ES contract. Placed my first trade May 13th.
Letâs see how well I learned my lessons.
To be continuedâ¦
